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What does the dramatic rise of the TikTok “Content House” mean for architecture and domesticity?

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<p>What does the dramatic rise of the TikTok “Content House” mean for architecture and domesticity?</p>

The year 2020 will always be remembered as a fundamentally transformative year. Exactly how permanent the rapidly adopted new patterns of work and domestic life will prove to be is difficult to gauge, but a return to old norms currently seems unlikely. Digital communication, already the structural core of our everyday lives in the pre-pandemic world, has become for some the primary form of social and professional interaction. Our new “distributed” working lives have fractured the head office across a thousand sofas, spare bedrooms, and kitchen tables.

<p>The year 2020 will always be remembered as a fundamentally transformative year. Exactly how permanent the rapidly adopted new patterns of work and domestic life will prove to be is difficult to gauge, but a return to old norms currently seems unlikely. Digital communication, already the structural core of our everyday lives in the pre-pandemic world, has become for some the primary form of social and professional interaction. Our new “distributed” working lives have fractured the head office across a thousand sofas, spare bedrooms, and kitchen tables.</p>

At the same time, for a generation of content creators rapidly professionalizing across Twitch streams, YouTube videos, and Discord servers, home has become the stage, studio, and media distribution center, and the definition of what a house is for has suddenly become hotly contested.

<p>At the same time, for a generation of content creators rapidly professionalizing across Twitch streams, YouTube videos, and Discord servers, home has become the stage, studio, and media distribution center, and the definition of what a house is for has suddenly become hotly contested.</p>

Our recent societal-wide, cultural beta-test has provided conditions where radical ideas can quickly become future norms, and so the recent explosion in popularity of TikTok, its “content houses,” and their occupants might require deeper consideration.

<p>Our recent societal-wide, cultural beta-test has provided conditions where radical ideas can quickly become future norms, and so the recent explosion in popularity of TikTok, its “content houses,” and their occupants might require deeper consideration.</p>

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Squeezing into the gap between the community focus of YouTube and Instagram’s <em>fomo-as-a-service</em> model, TikTok is precision-engineered around the experience of the contemporary teenager, driven by a directly social and distinctly granular form of creative production. While Instagram, for instance, appears to encourage an increasingly absurdist (and toxic) projection of “<em>how I live</em>,” TikTok’s central rubrik is more akin to “<em>what it’s like to be alive</em>.” This comes with associated slapstick, with the audience in on the joke, connected through a focus on content discovery rather than network formation. During the quagmire that was 2020, TikTok emerged as the perfect production tool and delivery method for the internet’s endless appetite for prison humor. No wonder Instagram has already ingested most of TikTok’s core principles into its newest “Reels” feature.

<p>Squeezing into the gap between the community focus of YouTube and Instagram’s <em>fomo-as-a-service</em> model, TikTok is precision-engineered around the experience of the contemporary teenager, driven by a directly social and distinctly granular form of creative production. While Instagram, for instance, appears to encourage an increasingly absurdist (and toxic) projection of “<em>how I live</em>,” TikTok’s central rubrik is more akin to “<em>what it’s like to be alive</em>.” This comes with associated slapstick, with the audience in on the joke, connected through a focus on content discovery rather than network formation. During the quagmire that was 2020, TikTok emerged as the perfect production tool and delivery method for the internet’s endless appetite for prison humor. No wonder Instagram has already ingested most of TikTok’s core principles into its newest “Reels” feature.</p>

On the surface, the content house is a relatively straightforward phenomenon. Crews of wildly popular influencers or ambitious hopefuls decide to live together to boost their platform, their brand, and their merch sales, in tandem with the growth of TikTok. With the most notorious of these houses garnering a massive online presence, the recent domestic turn saw a spate of entrepreneurial talent management agencies leap on the trend, and by the end of 2020 as many as 30 content houses were clamoring for attention. These locations—the headquarters of various social media crews and influencers—serve as a large stage set for life as performance, micro-cosmic gossip generators, and workshop studios for the most digitally prominent and their arsenal of pranks, make-up tutorials, lip-syncing, dancing, gaming, and self-development challenges.

<p>On the surface, the content house is a relatively straightforward phenomenon. Crews of wildly popular influencers or ambitious hopefuls decide to live together to boost their platform, their brand, and their merch sales, in tandem with the growth of TikTok. With the most notorious of these houses garnering a massive online presence, the recent domestic turn saw a spate of entrepreneurial talent management agencies leap on the trend, and by the end of 2020 as many as 30 content houses were clamoring for attention. These locations—the headquarters of various social media crews and influencers—serve as a large stage set for life as performance, micro-cosmic gossip generators, and workshop studios for the most digitally prominent and their arsenal of pranks, make-up tutorials, lip-syncing, dancing, gaming, and self-development challenges.</p>

According to “<a href="https://www.kapwing.com/resources/tiktok-houses-list/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">The Internet’s most complete list of TikTok houses</a>,” there are currently 36 notable projects at the time of writing, although they are fluid by nature, decaying as rapidly as the bloom.

<p>According to “<a href="https://www.kapwing.com/resources/tiktok-houses-list/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">The Internet’s most complete list of TikTok houses</a>,” there are currently 36 notable projects at the time of writing, although they are fluid by nature, decaying as rapidly as the bloom.</p>

Although the most successful influencers and content houses certainly have extensive fan bases, the benefits of shared “living” are obvious. The most simple explanation is, of course, that coliving is productive, providing a framework for groups of friends—but more often friendly collaborators—to build visibility. It’s the razzle-dazzle of an ensemble cast, situational comedy, and a chorus combined. Thanks to the encroachment of everyday life and co-living into this arrangement, the audience is also party to real world drama, albeit fragmented across channels.

<p>Although the most successful influencers and content houses certainly have extensive fan bases, the benefits of shared “living” are obvious. The most simple explanation is, of course, that coliving is productive, providing a framework for groups of friends—but more often friendly collaborators—to build visibility. It’s the razzle-dazzle of an ensemble cast, situational comedy, and a chorus combined. Thanks to the encroachment of everyday life and co-living into this arrangement, the audience is also party to real world drama, albeit fragmented across channels.</p>

As we live through the unique moment where people of all ages are returning to their bedrooms as the interface for much of social and professional life, content houses are a pivotal illustration of how platform engagement, mitigated through the domestic space, may be reconfiguring how we spend our time. Socializing becomes a performance in surfing the economies of attention and real estate. Or as the slogan of <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@tooturnttony?lang=en" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">TooTurntTony</a>, a producer of frequently viral TikToks, puts it: “<em>Livin’ for a Livin</em>.”

<p>As we live through the unique moment where people of all ages are returning to their bedrooms as the interface for much of social and professional life, content houses are a pivotal illustration of how platform engagement, mitigated through the domestic space, may be reconfiguring how we spend our time. Socializing becomes a performance in surfing the economies of attention and real estate. Or as the slogan of <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@tooturnttony?lang=en" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">TooTurntTony</a>, a producer of frequently viral TikToks, puts it: “<em>Livin’ for a Livin</em>.”</p>

<h3>IN EVERY CONTENT HOUSE A HEARTACHE</h3>

The content house might be the most vivid picture of a domestic future at a time when surveys tell us that 50 percent of Gen Z use their smartphones for five hours a day or more.

<p>The content house might be the most vivid picture of a domestic future at a time when surveys tell us that 50 percent of Gen Z use their smartphones for five hours a day or more.</p>

Content houses dispense with certain core components associated with domestic life: privacy, family, tranquility, and stability. The successful content house is a tangle of frictions, collisions, and exuberance. It is, of course, impossible to know how “real” the drama forged in these content houses is, but narrative threads can coexist between the channels of its members, existing beyond any definite direction.

<p>Content houses dispense with certain core components associated with domestic life: privacy, family, tranquility, and stability. The successful content house is a tangle of frictions, collisions, and exuberance. It is, of course, impossible to know how “real” the drama forged in these content houses is, but narrative threads can coexist between the channels of its members, existing beyond any definite direction.</p>

Where most latter-day reality TV has gradually succumbed to its own “kayfabe” (the suspension of disbelief demanded by professional wrestling—see the increasingly staged meta-fiction of <em>Jersey Shore or Made In Chelsea</em>), the intense emotional availability of many content houses appears to be authentic at least insofar as it is raw, unconstrained, and at the very least unregulated by a showrunner.

<p>Where most latter-day reality TV has gradually succumbed to its own “kayfabe” (the suspension of disbelief demanded by professional wrestling—see the increasingly staged meta-fiction of <em>Jersey Shore or Made In Chelsea</em>), the intense emotional availability of many content houses appears to be authentic at least insofar as it is raw, unconstrained, and at the very least unregulated by a showrunner.</p>

Many of today’s most successful “content creators” find initial success in their bedrooms by default, often alongside similarly popular siblings and parental cameos. The content house represents the transition of adolescence bedroom-based content production into the coming-of-age rumspringa of co-living. The studio gives way to the garden, the bedroom, the garage, or the car.

<p>Many of today’s most successful “content creators” find initial success in their bedrooms by default, often alongside similarly popular siblings and parental cameos. The content house represents the transition of adolescence bedroom-based content production into the coming-of-age rumspringa of co-living. The studio gives way to the garden, the bedroom, the garage, or the car.</p>

Despite its emergence through social media, the content house’s most obvious ancestor is possibly reality TV. While the content house orbits around a physical location, it also denotes a period of time, documented and developed much like a TV series. New members are “cast,” content is developed in “seasons,” there are regular micro-show formats built to develop specific brand and advertising arcs. A content house might stream content for far longer stretches than a movie or series, often running uninterrupted for hours or even days. However, the main event, of course, is the near continuous output of brutally short clips for TikTok. While Andy Warhol proposed that we might each get fifteen minutes of fame, the average length of a clip in TikTok’s most played Top 100 lasts fifteen seconds.

<p>Despite its emergence through social media, the content house’s most obvious ancestor is possibly reality TV. While the content house orbits around a physical location, it also denotes a period of time, documented and developed much like a TV series. New members are “cast,” content is developed in “seasons,” there are regular micro-show formats built to develop specific brand and advertising arcs. A content house might stream content for far longer stretches than a movie or series, often running uninterrupted for hours or even days. However, the main event, of course, is the near continuous output of brutally short clips for TikTok. While Andy Warhol proposed that we might each get fifteen minutes of fame, the average length of a clip in TikTok’s most played Top 100 lasts fifteen seconds.</p>

Once the internet’s premier tool for making short-form videos, Vine preceded the spectacular success of TikTok. When Vine launched in 2013, its major content “innovation” was that its videos were limited to six seconds and looped automatically, giving it a strange hyperactive quality that encouraged its users to experiment with the form. Vine was wildly popular for a short window of time, turning several of its most prominent users into internet celebrities. By 2015, six of the Top 10 most followed Vine users lived in various apartments at 1600 Vine, a luxury compound in Hollywood, where they frequently collaborated. The building became a hotspot for budding influencers and was profiled in <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/30/business/hollywood-apartment-social-media.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">The New York Times</a>, which noted the curious overlap between platform stardom and geographic proximity.

<p>Once the internet’s premier tool for making short-form videos, Vine preceded the spectacular success of TikTok. When Vine launched in 2013, its major content “innovation” was that its videos were limited to six seconds and looped automatically, giving it a strange hyperactive quality that encouraged its users to experiment with the form. Vine was wildly popular for a short window of time, turning several of its most prominent users into internet celebrities. By 2015, six of the Top 10 most followed Vine users lived in various apartments at 1600 Vine, a luxury compound in Hollywood, where they frequently collaborated. The building became a hotspot for budding influencers and was profiled in <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/30/business/hollywood-apartment-social-media.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">The New York Times</a>, which noted the curious overlap between platform stardom and geographic proximity.</p>

However, the Vine platform was slowly dying. The core six-second gimmick was becoming stale, and the platform managed by Twitter was being swamped with abusive comments. The conference room at 1600 Vine was a natural location for a meeting arranged by top tier Vine makers, in which they put forward a rescue strategy directly to its executives. They proposed a number of changes to Vine’s function and management, not least to provide a more viable mechanism for reunermating those generating the content (allegedly requesting $1.2 million each for the production of twelve videos a month). Its most celebrated creators, carefully tracking their own analytics, were keenly aware of rapidly declining “impression” rates and were getting spooked. The deal was rejected, however, and many of the creators left the platform to focus on YouTube, Instagram, and the explosive popularity of Snapchat. By January 2017, Vine would be completely shut down.

<p>However, the Vine platform was slowly dying. The core six-second gimmick was becoming stale, and the platform managed by Twitter was being swamped with abusive comments. The conference room at 1600 Vine was a natural location for a meeting arranged by top tier Vine makers, in which they put forward a rescue strategy directly to its executives. They proposed a number of changes to Vine’s function and management, not least to provide a more viable mechanism for reunermating those generating the content (allegedly requesting $1.2 million each for the production of twelve videos a month). Its most celebrated creators, carefully tracking their own analytics, were keenly aware of rapidly declining “impression” rates and were getting spooked. The deal was rejected, however, and many of the creators left the platform to focus on YouTube, Instagram, and the explosive popularity of Snapchat. By January 2017, Vine would be completely shut down.</p>

Meanwhile, Beijing-based ByteDance would launch Douyin across China, and in less than 18 months the app would have 100 million users. After merging its purchase of the lip-syncing app Musical.ly, it would be released internationally in 2017 as TikTok. The app would cement itself on the home screens of the American teenager, claiming a space in the crowded and already mature landscape of social media by spending a billion dollars a year on advertising after its international launch. TikTok is at least partially the platform that the participants of the meeting were imploring Vine to become.

<p>Meanwhile, Beijing-based ByteDance would launch Douyin across China, and in less than 18 months the app would have 100 million users. After merging its purchase of the lip-syncing app Musical.ly, it would be released internationally in 2017 as TikTok. The app would cement itself on the home screens of the American teenager, claiming a space in the crowded and already mature landscape of social media by spending a billion dollars a year on advertising after its international launch. TikTok is at least partially the platform that the participants of the meeting were imploring Vine to become.</p>

The 2019 US government-imposed takeover of the platform demonstrates how quickly a social network can transform into critical communications infrastructure, supported by Silicon Valley’s cultural unease with a Chinese social platform having such dominance in the US market—apparently requiring more decisive action than the application of the ‘Made in China” label. As a platform it also stands out, even in the rogue’s gallery of social media companies and their dubious data practices. Its algorithm and data collection techniques are highly opaque, and critical technologists regularly express concern about what might be going on under the hood. While TikTok’s emergence as a political football is instructive, the cultural significance of the platform shouldn’t be obscured by the geopolitical tangle of its conception or codebase, and these concerns don’t appear to faze the millions of teenagers fluent in the platform.

<p>The 2019 US government-imposed takeover of the platform demonstrates how quickly a social network can transform into critical communications infrastructure, supported by Silicon Valley’s cultural unease with a Chinese social platform having such dominance in the US market—apparently requiring more decisive action than the application of the ‘Made in China” label. As a platform it also stands out, even in the rogue’s gallery of social media companies and their dubious data practices. Its algorithm and data collection techniques are highly opaque, and critical technologists regularly express concern about what might be going on under the hood. While TikTok’s emergence as a political football is instructive, the cultural significance of the platform shouldn’t be obscured by the geopolitical tangle of its conception or codebase, and these concerns don’t appear to faze the millions of teenagers fluent in the platform.</p>

TikTok is not exactly shy about its management of attention. It has chiseled down the most intense, clingy aspects of behavioral design into weapons-grade addiction fodder. Part of TikTok’s appeal is that it takes the long tail of other online content, sound, and video, and encourages users to refine such fragments into the most seductive, instantaneously dissolvable digital pulses.

<p>TikTok is not exactly shy about its management of attention. It has chiseled down the most intense, clingy aspects of behavioral design into weapons-grade addiction fodder. Part of TikTok’s appeal is that it takes the long tail of other online content, sound, and video, and encourages users to refine such fragments into the most seductive, instantaneously dissolvable digital pulses.</p>

Through its design, appearance, location, and facilities, for some the home is becoming an appendage of platform interactivity. While it might be tempting to lean on sci-fi cliches, dazzling interfaces, or the zombie-like persistence of smart home fantasies as the key symbols of this version of domestic life, the house in the “house-as-platform-interface” model is moving in a different direction. A few dashes of vivid RGB LEDs aside, the layers of hyper-reality we encounter in the networked house are in image filters, face masks, and the distortions of music and slow motion camera prank footage rather than being set into physical architectural detailing.

<p>Through its design, appearance, location, and facilities, for some the home is becoming an appendage of platform interactivity. While it might be tempting to lean on sci-fi cliches, dazzling interfaces, or the zombie-like persistence of smart home fantasies as the key symbols of this version of domestic life, the house in the “house-as-platform-interface” model is moving in a different direction. A few dashes of vivid RGB LEDs aside, the layers of hyper-reality we encounter in the networked house are in image filters, face masks, and the distortions of music and slow motion camera prank footage rather than being set into physical architectural detailing.</p>

Over the last decade, teenagers realized they could directly market themselves without any complexity or baggage, and literally control the interests of intermediary media companies, agents, and record labels. They could talk directly to the camera, they could “be themselves” and build an audience. Achieving global fame as an actual teenager would ordinarily have some degree of dependency on the songs, words, or sports training from “the adults.” Today, teenage life can be sufficiently vivid on its own self-recorded terms to attract the attention of a generation of hyper-connected peers—and it’s also lucrative.

<p>Over the last decade, teenagers realized they could directly market themselves without any complexity or baggage, and literally control the interests of intermediary media companies, agents, and record labels. They could talk directly to the camera, they could “be themselves” and build an audience. Achieving global fame as an actual teenager would ordinarily have some degree of dependency on the songs, words, or sports training from “the adults.” Today, teenage life can be sufficiently vivid on its own self-recorded terms to attract the attention of a generation of hyper-connected peers—and it’s also lucrative.</p>

It’s noteworthy that while the ability to build an audience may be “organic,” the decision to conglomerate into a content house is far more strategic, often led in partnership with social media agencies and media management (in the case of Rhianna’s “Fenty House”) and directly under the coordination of an international brand. While at face value these names describe a physical location, they are, more accurately, attempts to build dynasties in the spirit of the Houses of Tudor, Lannister, or Kappa Kappa Gamma. They’re a distant cousin of the infamous “brogrammer” codeshops of Silicon Valley.

<p>It’s noteworthy that while the ability to build an audience may be “organic,” the decision to conglomerate into a content house is far more strategic, often led in partnership with social media agencies and media management (in the case of Rhianna’s “Fenty House”) and directly under the coordination of an international brand. While at face value these names describe a physical location, they are, more accurately, attempts to build dynasties in the spirit of the Houses of Tudor, Lannister, or Kappa Kappa Gamma. They’re a distant cousin of the infamous “brogrammer” codeshops of Silicon Valley.</p>

While the houses themselves feature as a backdrop rather than a character, the relationship to the actual building is perfunctory. Content houses appear to be almost universally rentals, leaning towards plain contemporary interior design that won’t accidentally overshadow its inhabitants. Despite the implication of dozens of young people sharing a house, the spaces appear meticulously clean and sometimes almost empty. As The New York Times <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/03/style/hype-house-los-angeles-tik-tok.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">discovered</a>, the lack of furniture is useful to make continually filming content all the easier. White walls happily provide better bounce lighting.

<p>While the houses themselves feature as a backdrop rather than a character, the relationship to the actual building is perfunctory. Content houses appear to be almost universally rentals, leaning towards plain contemporary interior design that won’t accidentally overshadow its inhabitants. Despite the implication of dozens of young people sharing a house, the spaces appear meticulously clean and sometimes almost empty. As The New York Times <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/03/style/hype-house-los-angeles-tik-tok.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">discovered</a>, the lack of furniture is useful to make continually filming content all the easier. White walls happily provide better bounce lighting.</p>

The house must of course be introduced with a new tour video. A frequent trope is the uncertainty about what’s actually there, perhaps the discovery of a new room or kitchen appliance. The most obvious furniture is often actually the means of virtual production, film editing locations, camera storage, lighting rigs, gaming chairs, and streaming set-ups.

<p>The house must of course be introduced with a new tour video. A frequent trope is the uncertainty about what’s actually there, perhaps the discovery of a new room or kitchen appliance. The most obvious furniture is often actually the means of virtual production, film editing locations, camera storage, lighting rigs, gaming chairs, and streaming set-ups.</p>

<figure class="wp-block-image alignwide size-large"><img src="https://writing-api.burman.work/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/bd2b5136f239584b4a43b3917813667f-1024x575.png" alt="" class="wp-image-3107"/><figcaption>IKEA launches an esports furniture collection to “democratize the gaming experience.” Image courtesy of IKEA</figcaption></figure>

Not everyone is a full-time resident. In fact, residency itself is more a political denomination than a geographic, but the governance of the house appears to be relatively consistent and mirrors the archetypal structures found across entertainment. There are usually one or two founders of the house that float somewhere between svengali, management, booking agent, and participant.

<p>Not everyone is a full-time resident. In fact, residency itself is more a political denomination than a geographic, but the governance of the house appears to be relatively consistent and mirrors the archetypal structures found across entertainment. There are usually one or two founders of the house that float somewhere between svengali, management, booking agent, and participant.</p>

With respect to the actual output of the content house, the work of artists Ryan Trecartin and Lizzie Fitch has been maniacally prescient. The ultra psychodramas of smushed frat houses and party palaces that they have depicted in their videos and exhibitions prefiguring the rampant energy of content culture leaps to mind when watching clips of Jerma985’s recent three-day Twitch streaming event <em>The Dollhouse</em>. It’s a generation of video makers and content producers drinking from the same Mountain Dew fountain of post-commercialized early internet voyeurisms such as MTV Cribs.

<p>With respect to the actual output of the content house, the work of artists Ryan Trecartin and Lizzie Fitch has been maniacally prescient. The ultra psychodramas of smushed frat houses and party palaces that they have depicted in their videos and exhibitions prefiguring the rampant energy of content culture leaps to mind when watching clips of Jerma985’s recent three-day Twitch streaming event <em>The Dollhouse</em>. It’s a generation of video makers and content producers drinking from the same Mountain Dew fountain of post-commercialized early internet voyeurisms such as MTV Cribs.</p>

Another film, <em><a href="https://pilvitakala.com/players" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Players</a></em> by Finnish artist Pilvi Takala, although tonally in stark contrast, chips away at the reality of platformed living. It documents six young professional online poker players who are coliving in Bangkok to maintain the ideal time window for competition against their most lucrative market—late-night and likely intoxicated American gamblers.

<p>Another film, <em><a href="https://pilvitakala.com/players" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Players</a></em> by Finnish artist Pilvi Takala, although tonally in stark contrast, chips away at the reality of platformed living. It documents six young professional online poker players who are coliving in Bangkok to maintain the ideal time window for competition against their most lucrative market—late-night and likely intoxicated American gamblers.</p>

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The reformulation of the domestic in the wake of new media technologies is nothing new. Japanese architect Toyo Ito details a similar phenomenon in 1988 in <em>Dismantling and Reordering the House in a Disorded City</em> from his collection of essays <em>Tarzans in the Media Forest</em>:

<p>The reformulation of the domestic in the wake of new media technologies is nothing new. Japanese architect Toyo Ito details a similar phenomenon in 1988 in <em>Dismantling and Reordering the House in a Disorded City</em> from his collection of essays <em>Tarzans in the Media Forest</em>:</p>

“The kind of spaces desired in houses, everything—a cozy living room with a low sofa facing toward audio-visual equipment, a dining room with a large table, around which meals can be enjoyed, a kitchen containing splendid modular fittings—are no longer places that play a part in the simplicity and vitality of family life. Like stage-set for television dramas they are no more than highly fictional spaces prepared for our aspirations toward family life.”

<p>“The kind of spaces desired in houses, everything—a cozy living room with a low sofa facing toward audio-visual equipment, a dining room with a large table, around which meals can be enjoyed, a kitchen containing splendid modular fittings—are no longer places that play a part in the simplicity and vitality of family life. Like stage-set for television dramas they are no more than highly fictional spaces prepared for our aspirations toward family life.”</p>

He goes on to observe that a new generation of young, newly financially independent women had reconstituted the expectations of Tokyo apartments by living maximal urban lives while forgoing furniture and maintaining only a minimal domestic footprint. Noting how this effect was becoming more universal, he follows on: “We are compelled to go back and forth between temporary, fictional urban spaces and fictional urban spaces, wherein functions become the remnants of flows of images.”

<p>He goes on to observe that a new generation of young, newly financially independent women had reconstituted the expectations of Tokyo apartments by living maximal urban lives while forgoing furniture and maintaining only a minimal domestic footprint. Noting how this effect was becoming more universal, he follows on: “We are compelled to go back and forth between temporary, fictional urban spaces and fictional urban spaces, wherein functions become the remnants of flows of images.”</p>

Ito was also a proponent of mediatheques and liquid archives, the architectural response to the shifting sands of networked culture towards the end of the millennium. Not unreasonably, the 90’s saw a glut of architectural propositions, exhibitions and realised projects that responded to the internet as a condition that could be examined, perhaps even contained through civic and public space, usually through the reconfiguration of libraries, museums and cultural zoning. While the visual and theoretical language of that era has aged with mixed results, the central intuition of how sizable the impact of networked media would be on the social consciousness was broadly accurate. The most glaring overestimation of many architects of that time was perhaps simply that we might even leave the house.

<p>Ito was also a proponent of mediatheques and liquid archives, the architectural response to the shifting sands of networked culture towards the end of the millennium. Not unreasonably, the 90’s saw a glut of architectural propositions, exhibitions and realised projects that responded to the internet as a condition that could be examined, perhaps even contained through civic and public space, usually through the reconfiguration of libraries, museums and cultural zoning. While the visual and theoretical language of that era has aged with mixed results, the central intuition of how sizable the impact of networked media would be on the social consciousness was broadly accurate. The most glaring overestimation of many architects of that time was perhaps simply that we might even leave the house.</p>

Alison Gopnik, Berkley Professor of Psychology and leading voice in cognitive development, has put forward the idea that the human’s extended childhood gives humanity extra space to explore and exit cultural “local maxima.” That is a good, but not a great, social pattern. The plasticity of the young mind gives humans an evolutionary advantage as we adjust the balance between “exploring” and “exploiting” the contents of our environment.

<p>Alison Gopnik, Berkley Professor of Psychology and leading voice in cognitive development, has put forward the idea that the human’s extended childhood gives humanity extra space to explore and exit cultural “local maxima.” That is a good, but not a great, social pattern. The plasticity of the young mind gives humans an evolutionary advantage as we adjust the balance between “exploring” and “exploiting” the contents of our environment.</p>

Teenagers as a group have few advocates when it comes to urban life. After all, how many buildings—let alone homes—are designed with teenagers specifically in mind? However, the teenager is perhaps the default user of the internet. The relationship between the lives of teenagers being shaped by, and in turn shaping, the structural forms of platforms built on newly available technology is complex and symbiotic, but online culture is largely driven by teenagers and young adults. From this perspective, as this culture comes to occupy more of the physical domestic space and platformed home-working slouches towards ubiquity, the content house may not be a temporary cultural moment but a genuine experimentation with the purpose of domestic space.

<p>Teenagers as a group have few advocates when it comes to urban life. After all, how many buildings—let alone homes—are designed with teenagers specifically in mind? However, the teenager is perhaps the default user of the internet. The relationship between the lives of teenagers being shaped by, and in turn shaping, the structural forms of platforms built on newly available technology is complex and symbiotic, but online culture is largely driven by teenagers and young adults. From this perspective, as this culture comes to occupy more of the physical domestic space and platformed home-working slouches towards ubiquity, the content house may not be a temporary cultural moment but a genuine experimentation with the purpose of domestic space.</p>

So what does TikTok mean for domestic spaces, architecture, or even the city?

<p>So what does TikTok mean for domestic spaces, architecture, or even the city?</p>

A simple reading is that it’s the extension of the trend of teenagers, hyper-literate in both the functionality and cultural context of platforms, to renegotiate their boundaries while reaping the benefits of wild permanent connectivity. If society depends on the younger members to experiment on behalf of everyone else, this is what it looks like today.

<p>A simple reading is that it’s the extension of the trend of teenagers, hyper-literate in both the functionality and cultural context of platforms, to renegotiate their boundaries while reaping the benefits of wild permanent connectivity. If society depends on the younger members to experiment on behalf of everyone else, this is what it looks like today.</p>

It’s in the DNA of design theory to seek out the “architecture” of such phenomena, but from a material point of view there isn’t all that much to cling to. The reality is that architecture for the purpose of the content house is conceptually interchangeable with real estate. Indeed even the relationship between these spaces and the cities they occupy is indirect—most content houses appear to film relatively little in the external world. It might be brand maintenance, but since the trend has existed almost entirely during—and perhaps as a result of—the pandemic, who knows. They exist in an uncomfortable sofa crevice between a notionally “real” city and a GTA5 live stream. The figure of the city is primarily as a flavor of lifestyle and narrative framing, with the majority setting up shop in Los Angeles, the archetypal lifestyle capital.

<p>It’s in the DNA of design theory to seek out the “architecture” of such phenomena, but from a material point of view there isn’t all that much to cling to. The reality is that architecture for the purpose of the content house is conceptually interchangeable with real estate. Indeed even the relationship between these spaces and the cities they occupy is indirect—most content houses appear to film relatively little in the external world. It might be brand maintenance, but since the trend has existed almost entirely during—and perhaps as a result of—the pandemic, who knows. They exist in an uncomfortable sofa crevice between a notionally “real” city and a GTA5 live stream. The figure of the city is primarily as a flavor of lifestyle and narrative framing, with the majority setting up shop in Los Angeles, the archetypal lifestyle capital.</p>

Much has been written about the complex history between the urbanity of Los Angeles and the history of other forms of media, most obviously radio and cinema. That social media and such a digitally dislocated trend might retain a natural geographic center of gravity (at least in America) are both curious and then obvious, given the ambitions of many of TikTok’s elite. Relocation to Los Angeles follows the same playbook as moving in together, and usually comes first.

<p>Much has been written about the complex history between the urbanity of Los Angeles and the history of other forms of media, most obviously radio and cinema. That social media and such a digitally dislocated trend might retain a natural geographic center of gravity (at least in America) are both curious and then obvious, given the ambitions of many of TikTok’s elite. Relocation to Los Angeles follows the same playbook as moving in together, and usually comes first.</p>

It brings to mind the 2003 video essay <em>Los Angeles Plays Itself</em> by Thom Andersen. Andersen’s film attempts to revitalize a view of the city of Los Angeles and its unique architectural history as character within “the movies” by differentiating it from the abbreviated identity of LA—a construct swimming in its own industrially fabricated cinematic imagery. The content house is perhaps the logical extension of the latter, now appearing as a sun-drenched lifestyle pantomime stretched across a landscape of anonymous, disconnected mansions.

<p>It brings to mind the 2003 video essay <em>Los Angeles Plays Itself</em> by Thom Andersen. Andersen’s film attempts to revitalize a view of the city of Los Angeles and its unique architectural history as character within “the movies” by differentiating it from the abbreviated identity of LA—a construct swimming in its own industrially fabricated cinematic imagery. The content house is perhaps the logical extension of the latter, now appearing as a sun-drenched lifestyle pantomime stretched across a landscape of anonymous, disconnected mansions.</p>

For many, architecture itself has slipped into a vernacular propaganda of people cut-outs and V-Ray. Perhaps the content house is simply the realization of the fully dematerialized way of life that this visual form often accidentally proposes.

<p>For many, architecture itself has slipped into a vernacular propaganda of people cut-outs and V-Ray. Perhaps the content house is simply the realization of the fully dematerialized way of life that this visual form often accidentally proposes.</p>

It might be more instructive then to consider what TikTok means for those living in these spaces. While by no means universally the case, for many WiFi is now genuinely the most important domestic amenity and there’s barely any architectural precedent that prepares us for that. Not least because it can provide potential and instant access to a hungry audience, numbering in the millions. In the long run, the relationship between privacy and domestic space may turn out to be little more than a default setting.

<p>It might be more instructive then to consider what TikTok means for those living in these spaces. While by no means universally the case, for many WiFi is now genuinely the most important domestic amenity and there’s barely any architectural precedent that prepares us for that. Not least because it can provide potential and instant access to a hungry audience, numbering in the millions. In the long run, the relationship between privacy and domestic space may turn out to be little more than a default setting.</p>

From another angle, TikTok through the content house is also a radical social proposal. Take the “Hype House” at face value, for example, and you see 21 young people deciding to cohabit, supporting themselves almost entirely by making videos no longer than sixty seconds. From the point of view of the architectural program, it’s as magnificently brazen as it is contemporary. That the Hype House is not an outlier, but a trendsetter, outlines how many budding TikTok stars (or indeed just teenagers) might embrace the model of platform as habitat, if given the chance.

<p>From another angle, TikTok through the content house is also a radical social proposal. Take the “Hype House” at face value, for example, and you see 21 young people deciding to cohabit, supporting themselves almost entirely by making videos no longer than sixty seconds. From the point of view of the architectural program, it’s as magnificently brazen as it is contemporary. That the Hype House is not an outlier, but a trendsetter, outlines how many budding TikTok stars (or indeed just teenagers) might embrace the model of platform as habitat, if given the chance.</p>

This essay was originally written for <strong>Strelka Magazine.</strong> View the original here:

<p>This essay was originally written for <strong>Strelka Magazine.</strong> View the original here:</p>

Christopher Burman on TikTok and the transformations it brings to architecture and domesticity.

The Content House: The New Cottage Industry of Platform Inhabitation

<div class="vlp-link-container vlp-layout-basic wp-block-visual-link-preview-link"><a href="https://strelkamag.com/en/article/content-house" class="vlp-link" title="The Content House: The New Cottage Industry of Platform Inhabitation" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"></a><div class="vlp-layout-zone-side"><div class="vlp-block-2 vlp-link-image"><img src="https://storage.strelka.com/i/babdb84b-4fc6-4fed-a3ae-8058fb543935/w/1200" style="max-width: 150px; max-height: 150px" /></div></div><div class="vlp-layout-zone-main"><div class="vlp-block-0 vlp-link-title">The Content House: The New Cottage Industry of Platform Inhabitation</div><div class="vlp-block-1 vlp-link-summary">Christopher Burman on TikTok and the transformations it brings to architecture and domesticity.</div></div></div>

visual-link-preview/link

<div class="wp-block-visual-link-preview-link"><img class="vlp-image" src="https://storage.strelka.com/i/babdb84b-4fc6-4fed-a3ae-8058fb543935/w/1200"/><h3>The Content House: The New Cottage Industry of Platform Inhabitation</h3><div class="summary">Christopher Burman on TikTok and the transformations it brings to architecture and domesticity.</div></div>

0003 – Who Makes The Map, Makes Us

0001 – Orange Moscow (Notes on a City Changing Colour)

0002 – The Content House

Over the summer, a new state-of-the-art AI image generator,  <a href="https://stability.ai/blog/stable-diffusion-public-release">Stable Diffusion</a> was released. Unlike its competitors which remain largely paywalled, it was made freely downloadable, smashing open a piñata of hype, panic and potential. Influential researcher (and former Director of AI at Tesla) Andrej Karpathy described it as ‘<a href="https://twitter.com/karpathy/status/1561818955966058500">a day of historic proportion for human creativity</a>'.

<p>Over the summer, a new state-of-the-art AI image generator,  <a href="https://stability.ai/blog/stable-diffusion-public-release">Stable Diffusion</a> was released. Unlike its competitors which remain largely paywalled, it was made freely downloadable, smashing open a piñata of hype, panic and potential. Influential researcher (and former Director of AI at Tesla) Andrej Karpathy described it as ‘<a href="https://twitter.com/karpathy/status/1561818955966058500">a day of historic proportion for human creativity</a>'.</p>

With <a href="https://thesequence.substack.com/p/generative-ai-fundraising-momentum" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">investment dollars pouring in</a>, including a $101m for Stability.AI, the company behind Stable Diffusion, the field of "Generative AI" has quickly become this seasons venture capital unicorn ranch and nothing will ever be the same again, again.

<p>With <a href="https://thesequence.substack.com/p/generative-ai-fundraising-momentum" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">investment dollars pouring in</a>, including a $101m for Stability.AI, the company behind Stable Diffusion, the field of "Generative AI" has quickly become this seasons venture capital unicorn ranch and nothing will ever be the same again, again.</p>

I've been experimenting with Stable Diffusion since its release – see the numbered images in this post – and while contending with such intense buzz requires caution - also TLDR;  I don’t think I’ve ever used a piece of code or software that has left such an intense impression so quickly.

<p>I've been experimenting with Stable Diffusion since its release – see the numbered images in this post – and while contending with such intense buzz requires caution - also TLDR;  I don’t think I’ve ever used a piece of code or software that has left such an intense impression so quickly.</p>

Stable Diffusion doesn't appear to be hugely more capable than its competitors MidJourney or Dall-E although the outputs it generates are generally more <em>fascinating</em>, especially in the terrain beyond style-transfer. Its primary advantage is that it's downloadable and free to operate on your own PC, providing space to both fine-tune it's process and to some extent reverse engineer its logic. As someone who spends a significant amount of time making and thinking about images - inputting my own images and drawings into Stable Diffusion has thrown up some knotty questions.

<p>Stable Diffusion doesn't appear to be hugely more capable than its competitors MidJourney or Dall-E although the outputs it generates are generally more <em>fascinating</em>, especially in the terrain beyond style-transfer. Its primary advantage is that it's downloadable and free to operate on your own PC, providing space to both fine-tune it's process and to some extent reverse engineer its logic. As someone who spends a significant amount of time making and thinking about images - inputting my own images and drawings into Stable Diffusion has thrown up some knotty questions. </p>

Before getting into these, the quickest shortcut through the hype might be just to try it for yourself and experience both its weirdness and limitations. There are many <a href="https://medium.com/geekculture/run-stable-diffusion-in-your-local-computer-heres-a-step-by-step-guide-af128397d424" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">guides</a>, <a href="https://www.howtogeek.com/830179/how-to-run-stable-diffusion-on-your-pc-to-generate-ai-images/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">tutorials</a> and easy to use interfaces such as <a href="https://github.com/AUTOMATIC1111/stable-diffusion-webui">webui</a>, which is perhaps the most active and <a href="https://github.com/cmdr2/stable-diffusion-ui" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">stable-diffusion-ui</a>, which is possibly marginally easier to install. It can be used directly online at <a href="https://huggingface.co/spaces/stabilityai/stable-diffusion" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">huggingface</a> or dozens of other hosted version that have sprung up, although tinkering with a local installation provides the most flexibility.

<p>Before getting into these, the quickest shortcut through the hype might be just to try it for yourself and experience both its weirdness and limitations. There are many <a href="https://medium.com/geekculture/run-stable-diffusion-in-your-local-computer-heres-a-step-by-step-guide-af128397d424" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">guides</a>, <a href="https://www.howtogeek.com/830179/how-to-run-stable-diffusion-on-your-pc-to-generate-ai-images/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">tutorials</a> and easy to use interfaces such as <a href="https://github.com/AUTOMATIC1111/stable-diffusion-webui">webui</a>, which is perhaps the most active and <a href="https://github.com/cmdr2/stable-diffusion-ui" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">stable-diffusion-ui</a>, which is possibly marginally easier to install. It can be used directly online at <a href="https://huggingface.co/spaces/stabilityai/stable-diffusion" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">huggingface</a> or dozens of other hosted version that have sprung up, although tinkering with a local installation provides the most flexibility.</p>

Sidestepping the tangled definitions of intelligence, we can at least recognise that such models are capable of extraordinary feats of translation, allowing us to skirt across vast dimensions of latent space and metaphorical image analysis that 150,000 hours of top grade GPU training time affords. We may not yet have sufficient metaphors to describe these interactions, landing somewhere between co-creation and augmented visual research made possible by ingesting 5.8 billion images. As a tool of self-evaluation it's remarkably useful to be able to supply it images and essentially ask '<em>what is this?</em>' and then '<em>what it would be like as something slightly, or significantly, or entirely different?'</em>. It's a process that feels conversational, and stranger still, one where the other party is adamantly attempting to convince you that images are not what you thought they were.

<p>Sidestepping the tangled definitions of intelligence, we can at least recognise that such models are capable of extraordinary feats of translation, allowing us to skirt across vast dimensions of latent space and metaphorical image analysis that 150,000 hours of top grade GPU training time affords. We may not yet have sufficient metaphors to describe these interactions, landing somewhere between co-creation and augmented visual research made possible by ingesting 5.8 billion images. As a tool of self-evaluation it's remarkably useful to be able to supply it images and essentially ask '<em>what is this?</em>' and then '<em>what it would be like as something slightly, or significantly, or entirely different?'</em>. It's a process that feels conversational, and stranger still, one where the other party is adamantly attempting to convince you that images are not what you thought they were.</p>

The term-of-art to describe the process of fine-tuning the inputs is known as ‘<a href="https://github.com/sw-yx/prompt-eng/blob/main/README.md">Prompt Engineering</a>’, although we may quickly need a more expansive term, that is less suggestive of a short, written starting points and more considerate of different potential input methods. How we feed such models is now encompassing all forms digital media - see emerging techniques for speech2video or text-to-3D aka <a href="https://dreamfusion3d.github.io">Dreamfusion</a>. Naturally some are already <a href="https://medium.com/mlearning-ai/using-an-ai-writer-to-generate-the-text-prompt-for-an-ai-image-generator-b331a6b94cdb" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">using one AI</a> to work out what to ask another.

<p>The term-of-art to describe the process of fine-tuning the inputs is known as ‘<a href="https://github.com/sw-yx/prompt-eng/blob/main/README.md">Prompt Engineering</a>’, although we may quickly need a more expansive term, that is less suggestive of a short, written starting points and more considerate of different potential input methods. How we feed such models is now encompassing all forms digital media - see emerging techniques for speech2video or text-to-3D aka <a href="https://dreamfusion3d.github.io">Dreamfusion</a>. Naturally some are already <a href="https://medium.com/mlearning-ai/using-an-ai-writer-to-generate-the-text-prompt-for-an-ai-image-generator-b331a6b94cdb" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">using one AI</a> to work out what to ask another.</p>

In a talk around a decade ago, I remember the artist <a href="https://markleckey.com">Mark Leckey</a> comparing image search engines to alchemy, since they could, if used effectively, conjure images from our imagination into being. In the era of “Big Data”, search could be considered be a productive, creative act.

<p>In a talk around a decade ago, I remember the artist <a href="https://markleckey.com">Mark Leckey</a> comparing image search engines to alchemy, since they could, if used effectively, conjure images from our imagination into being. In the era of “Big Data”, search could be considered be a productive, creative act. </p>

It was also an acknowledgement that, in a world where images are no longer scarce or hidden, how we work with them and what they mean might need to be fundamentally reconsidered.  As with many technologies, there is a window between our first interactions initial it and it’s maturity.  This same process feels like it’s happening with AI image generation, albeit slightly faster. I remember using Google Image Search not long after it was originally launched, it was both revelatory and yet also strangely limited. Before long it 'got good', and what once felt slightly unreliable, quickly cemented itself as an essential component of how we think about images.

<p>It was also an acknowledgement that, in a world where images are no longer scarce or hidden, how we work with them and what they mean might need to be fundamentally reconsidered.  As with many technologies, there is a window between our first interactions initial it and it’s maturity.  This same process feels like it’s happening with AI image generation, albeit slightly faster. I remember using Google Image Search not long after it was originally launched, it was both revelatory and yet also strangely limited. Before long it 'got good', and what once felt slightly unreliable, quickly cemented itself as an essential component of how we think about images. </p>

Emad Mostaque, CEO of&nbsp;<a href="http://stability.ai/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Stability.ai</a>&nbsp;describes using his model as&nbsp;‘<em><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Snn4Pq5DBIo">generative search</a></em>’ – perhaps he was also in attendance at Leckeys lecture. He also predicts bombastically that<em><a href="https://twitter.com/EMostaque/status/1581669854720888832"> "image will be solved within a year</a></em>". Siri - set a reminder, <em>17th October, 2023.</em> Hype train aside - it does seem likely that the underlying capacity of such technologies is going to keep growing in the near future. From the perspective of what they can already do, things are only going to get <em>weirder</em>.

<p>Emad Mostaque, CEO of&nbsp;<a href="http://stability.ai/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Stability.ai</a>&nbsp;describes using his model as&nbsp;‘<em><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Snn4Pq5DBIo">generative search</a></em>’ – perhaps he was also in attendance at Leckeys lecture. He also predicts bombastically that<em><a href="https://twitter.com/EMostaque/status/1581669854720888832"> "image will be solved within a year</a></em>". Siri - set a reminder, <em>17th October, 2023.</em> Hype train aside - it does seem likely that the underlying capacity of such technologies is going to keep growing in the near future. From the perspective of what they can already do, things are only going to get <em>weirder</em>.</p>

The crescendo of excitement surrounding Stable Diffusion is partly thanks to its public release. While the main competitor <a href="https://www.midjourney.com/home/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Midjourney</a> currently has <em>3 million</em> members on its discord, that's primarily because chatting with a bot is the primary way to use use it. By decoupling the model from the service offering, Stability.AI has been propelled skyward by a community eager to to build things on top of the technology. This community is growing wildly fast and releasing a stream of visual tools and genre-bending proof-of-concepts, with new <a href="https://github.com/cobanov/awesome-diffusion">resources</a> available almost daily.

<p>The crescendo of excitement surrounding Stable Diffusion is partly thanks to its public release. While the main competitor <a href="https://www.midjourney.com/home/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Midjourney</a> currently has <em>3 million</em> members on its discord, that's primarily because chatting with a bot is the primary way to use use it. By decoupling the model from the service offering, Stability.AI has been propelled skyward by a community eager to to build things on top of the technology. This community is growing wildly fast and releasing a stream of visual tools and genre-bending proof-of-concepts, with new <a href="https://github.com/cobanov/awesome-diffusion">resources</a> available almost daily. </p>

<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img src="https://writing-api.burman.work/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/image-1024x729.png" alt="" class="wp-image-3315"/><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Graph comparing 'stars' on GitHub of the Stable Diffusion repo vs several other popular open source libraries (it's the vertical blue line on the right) via <a href="https://twitter.com/EMostaque">@EMostaque</a></figcaption></figure>

Nowhere is this more evidence that the rapid-fire demoscene of interfacial experiments, such as the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hkOF3_MIDOs">VR &amp; 360 Demos</a> by <a href="https://twitter.com/scottiefoxttv">ScottieFox</a>, and live AR demos by <a href="https://twitter.com/stspanho/status/1581707753747537920">Stijn </a><a href="https://twitter.com/stspanho/status/1581707753747537920" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Spanhove</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/sergeyglkn/status/1580167837770870784">Sergie Galkin</a>. Daniel Eckler has also compiled <a href="https://twitter.com/daniel_eckler/status/1572210382944538624" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">a fantastic thread</a>. For a general state of play, a good place to start is reddit: <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/StableDiffusion/">r/StableDiffusion</a> and <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/sdforall/">r/sdforall</a> or the <a href="https://discord.gg/stablediffusion">discord</a>. This outpouring of activity is the result to Stability.Ai's gamble to embrace an an alternative business model, helpfully summarised by swyx's "<a href="https://lspace.swyx.io/p/open-source-ai">How Open Source is eating A</a>I".

<p>Nowhere is this more evidence that the rapid-fire demoscene of interfacial experiments, such as the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hkOF3_MIDOs">VR &amp; 360 Demos</a> by <a href="https://twitter.com/scottiefoxttv">ScottieFox</a>, and live AR demos by <a href="https://twitter.com/stspanho/status/1581707753747537920">Stijn </a><a href="https://twitter.com/stspanho/status/1581707753747537920" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Spanhove</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/sergeyglkn/status/1580167837770870784">Sergie Galkin</a>. Daniel Eckler has also compiled <a href="https://twitter.com/daniel_eckler/status/1572210382944538624" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">a fantastic thread</a>. For a general state of play, a good place to start is reddit: <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/StableDiffusion/">r/StableDiffusion</a> and <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/sdforall/">r/sdforall</a> or the <a href="https://discord.gg/stablediffusion">discord</a>. This outpouring of activity is the result to Stability.Ai's gamble to embrace an an alternative business model, helpfully summarised by swyx's "<a href="https://lspace.swyx.io/p/open-source-ai">How Open Source is eating A</a>I".</p>

It's tempting humanise these tools, thinking of the model as somehow intuitive since its outputs can sometimes feel so unexpected, complex or perhaps even baffling. For now at least the very opposite is true, part of what makes it so interesting is that the latent space from which it pulls images is fully explorable - we can export an image for every step of the way or restart the process where we left off.

<p>It's tempting humanise these tools, thinking of the model as somehow intuitive since its outputs can sometimes feel so unexpected, complex or perhaps even baffling. For now at least the very opposite is true, part of what makes it so interesting is that the latent space from which it pulls images is fully explorable - we can export an image for every step of the way or restart the process where we left off.  </p>

To such models, every image resembles a Monet painting or '<a href="https://mashable.com/article/werid-dall-e-images" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">A bottle of ranch testifying in court</a>', to some extent - it's just that most of the time it's 0.000%.  To this end we can consider essentially all images, generated or otherwise as a bundle of definitions within Stable Diffusions <a href="https://jalammar.github.io/illustrated-stable-diffusion/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">hyper-dimensional latent space</a>. To generate an image is to chart a logical (or absurd) route through the model, sampling the states of confusion and intrigue along the way, jiggling images  from 0.041% of <em>this</em> to 0.98% of <em>that</em>.

<p>To such models, every image resembles a Monet painting or '<a href="https://mashable.com/article/werid-dall-e-images" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">A bottle of ranch testifying in court</a>', to some extent - it's just that most of the time it's 0.000%.  To this end we can consider essentially all images, generated or otherwise as a bundle of definitions within Stable Diffusions <a href="https://jalammar.github.io/illustrated-stable-diffusion/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">hyper-dimensional latent space</a>. To generate an image is to chart a logical (or absurd) route through the model, sampling the states of confusion and intrigue along the way, jiggling images  from 0.041% of <em>this</em> to 0.98% of <em>that</em>.</p>

<div class="wp-block-column" style="flex-basis:50%"><figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img src="https://writing-api.burman.work/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/diffusion-example-1024x757.png" alt="" class="wp-image-3217"/><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">&nbsp;An example of training a diffusion model for modeling a 2D swiss roll data. (Image source:&nbsp;<a href="https://arxiv.org/abs/1503.03585" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Sohl-Dickstein et al., 2015</a>). - via <em>What are Diffusion Models?</em> by Lilian Weng </figcaption></figure></div>

<div class="wp-block-column" style="flex-basis:50%"><p>Curiously the underlying technical <a href="https://lilianweng.github.io/posts/2021-07-11-diffusion-models/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">architectures of diffusion models</a>, i.e Stable <em>Diffusion</em>, have their origins in thermodynamics. Authors on one of the early papers on the topic summarise it as: <a href="https://arxiv.org/abs/1503.03585">"The essential idea, inspired by non-equilibrium statistical physics, is to systematically and slowly destroy structure in a data distribution through an iterative forward diffusion process."</a> </p><p>It turns out to be deliriously effective to train a neural network by adding and removing noise from an image in tiny iterations. We might even think of Stable Diffusion as essentially hyper-specialised noise reduction repeated dozens of times over. Generally the individual gradual steps along this path are nearly imperceptible to the human eye - in aggregate however the model can travel on what appears to be a wild ride of imagination.</p><p>That doesn't mean we can directly parse it's reasoning. For instance the outputs can dramatically change form when it's underling parameters, such as 'de-noising' are only marginally adjusted, from say 0.875 to 0.9 as if crossing a threshold beyond which the model can no longer contain itself.</p></div>

<div class="wp-block-columns alignwide"><div class="wp-block-column" style="flex-basis:50%"><figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img src="https://writing-api.burman.work/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/diffusion-example-1024x757.png" alt="" class="wp-image-3217"/><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">&nbsp;An example of training a diffusion model for modeling a 2D swiss roll data. (Image source:&nbsp;<a href="https://arxiv.org/abs/1503.03585" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Sohl-Dickstein et al., 2015</a>). - via <em>What are Diffusion Models?</em> by Lilian Weng </figcaption></figure></div><div class="wp-block-column" style="flex-basis:50%"><p>Curiously the underlying technical <a href="https://lilianweng.github.io/posts/2021-07-11-diffusion-models/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">architectures of diffusion models</a>, i.e Stable <em>Diffusion</em>, have their origins in thermodynamics. Authors on one of the early papers on the topic summarise it as: <a href="https://arxiv.org/abs/1503.03585">"The essential idea, inspired by non-equilibrium statistical physics, is to systematically and slowly destroy structure in a data distribution through an iterative forward diffusion process."</a> </p><p>It turns out to be deliriously effective to train a neural network by adding and removing noise from an image in tiny iterations. We might even think of Stable Diffusion as essentially hyper-specialised noise reduction repeated dozens of times over. Generally the individual gradual steps along this path are nearly imperceptible to the human eye - in aggregate however the model can travel on what appears to be a wild ride of imagination.</p><p>That doesn't mean we can directly parse it's reasoning. For instance the outputs can dramatically change form when it's underling parameters, such as 'de-noising' are only marginally adjusted, from say 0.875 to 0.9 as if crossing a threshold beyond which the model can no longer contain itself.</p></div></div>

Stable Diffusion works because it is trained on 5.8 billion images but it's also appears fundamentally scarred by the process. It is common for images it generates to feature a hallucinated stock image watermark or 'garbled Getty images' banner. In her essay <em><a href="https://www.e-flux.com/journal/32/68260/the-spam-of-the-earth-withdrawal-from-representation/">'The Spam of the Earth: Withdrawal from Representation'</a></em> Hito Steyl reminds us that we have inadvertently flooded actual deep space with spam, <em>"Image spam is our message to the future."</em>.  Now we’re filling our artificial brains with spam and stock image offcuts as well.

<p>Stable Diffusion works because it is trained on 5.8 billion images but it's also appears fundamentally scarred by the process. It is common for images it generates to feature a hallucinated stock image watermark or 'garbled Getty images' banner. In her essay <em><a href="https://www.e-flux.com/journal/32/68260/the-spam-of-the-earth-withdrawal-from-representation/">'The Spam of the Earth: Withdrawal from Representation'</a></em> Hito Steyl reminds us that we have inadvertently flooded actual deep space with spam, <em>"Image spam is our message to the future."</em>.  Now we’re filling our artificial brains with spam and stock image offcuts as well. </p>

<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img src="https://writing-api.burman.work/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/spam-collage.png" alt="" class="wp-image-3226"/><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Examples of watermarks and logos in images generated by Stable Diffusion (v1.5).</figcaption></figure>

However these issues may be trivial to bigger concerns now that a model with such power is out-in-the-wild. Stability.ai claim that the images are digitally watermarked, there are safeguards against NSFW content and mandate some fairly hefty licence restrictions. However judging by some of the community outputs this is almost impossible to regulate and potentially laying the groundwork for even more complex challenges.

<p>However these issues may be trivial to bigger concerns now that a model with such power is out-in-the-wild. Stability.ai claim that the images are digitally watermarked, there are safeguards against NSFW content and mandate some fairly hefty licence restrictions. However judging by some of the community outputs this is almost impossible to regulate and potentially laying the groundwork for even more complex challenges.</p>

Benjamin Bratton &amp; Blaise Aguera y Arcas, in their recent essay <em>"<a href="https://www.noemamag.com/the-model-is-the-message" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">The Model Is The Message: Why We Need New Language For Artificial Intelligence</a></em> <em>"</em> partially in response to Google Engineer Blake Lemoines claim that the LaMDA chatbot might be '<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/12/technology/google-chatbot-ai-blake-lemoine.html">sentient</a>', define <em>"Seven Problems With Synthetic Language At Platform Scale"</em>.  Two of these seven seem of immediate relevance to the release of Stable Diffusion - <em>The Machine Majority Language Problem</em> - what happens when the majority of language is spoken machine made? Then as a chaser – <em>The Ouroboros Language Problem</em> - what happens when the models are then trained on a corpus that was machine made?

<p>Benjamin Bratton &amp; Blaise Aguera y Arcas, in their recent essay <em>"<a href="https://www.noemamag.com/the-model-is-the-message" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">The Model Is The Message: Why We Need New Language For Artificial Intelligence</a></em> <em>"</em> partially in response to Google Engineer Blake Lemoines claim that the LaMDA chatbot might be '<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/12/technology/google-chatbot-ai-blake-lemoine.html">sentient</a>', define <em>"Seven Problems With Synthetic Language At Platform Scale"</em>.  Two of these seven seem of immediate relevance to the release of Stable Diffusion - <em>The Machine Majority Language Problem</em> - what happens when the majority of language is spoken machine made? Then as a chaser – <em>The Ouroboros Language Problem</em> - what happens when the models are then trained on a corpus that was machine made?</p>

<a href="https://www.stockphotosecrets.com/news/getty-images-shutterstock-ai-submission.html">Getty and Shutterstock have already banned AI generated images</a> given the sudden ease of being able to make them and the training pool for the next generation models is probably now already polluted. As Bratton and Aguera y Arcas observe, given the forthcoming onslaught of AI content, more radical approaches may be necessary, such as tagging content which is explicitly <em>'human made</em>'.

<p><a href="https://www.stockphotosecrets.com/news/getty-images-shutterstock-ai-submission.html">Getty and Shutterstock have already banned AI generated images</a> given the sudden ease of being able to make them and the training pool for the next generation models is probably now already polluted. As Bratton and Aguera y Arcas observe, given the forthcoming onslaught of AI content, more radical approaches may be necessary, such as tagging content which is explicitly <em>'human made</em>'.</p>

Although their focus is on language processing models, the underlying logic is not only directly transferable to image generation, but really all machine learning approaches to media – as they write <em>"the sequence modeling at the heart of natural language processing is key to enabling generalist AI models that can flexibly do arbitrary tasks, even ones that are not themselves linguistic, from image synthesis to drug discovery to robotics"</em>.

<p>Although their focus is on language processing models, the underlying logic is not only directly transferable to image generation, but really all machine learning approaches to media – as they write <em>"the sequence modeling at the heart of natural language processing is key to enabling generalist AI models that can flexibly do arbitrary tasks, even ones that are not themselves linguistic, from image synthesis to drug discovery to robotics"</em>.</p>

While of course Stable Diffusion is largely manipulated with text-based prompts, the deeper consideration here is that linguistic capacity is the likely foundation for computational systems that can learn or build models of the world with a comparable speed, flexibility or inventiveness that even small children might display when picking up grammar, syntax and vocabulary. When it comes to machine learning, metaphor isn't a metaphor.

<p>While of course Stable Diffusion is largely manipulated with text-based prompts, the deeper consideration here is that linguistic capacity is the likely foundation for computational systems that can learn or build models of the world with a comparable speed, flexibility or inventiveness that even small children might display when picking up grammar, syntax and vocabulary. When it comes to machine learning, metaphor isn't a metaphor.</p>

So the commercial viability of libraries of stock images, game textures (and in time footage, copy-right free music) is perhaps shaky, but more fundamentally, but so to is the very nature of the 'stock' image. It's easy to forget such archives represent an industrialisation of visual communication, though the continuous production of generic images, vector graphics, symbols, logos and templates. What's changing is that the 'stock' is no longer a store but likely to become a process - the fruits of which will be strange. Adaptive illustrations that A/B test themselves, hyper-personalisation, deep instability.

<p>So the commercial viability of libraries of stock images, game textures (and in time footage, copy-right free music) is perhaps shaky, but more fundamentally, but so to is the very nature of the 'stock' image. It's easy to forget such archives represent an industrialisation of visual communication, though the continuous production of generic images, vector graphics, symbols, logos and templates. What's changing is that the 'stock' is no longer a store but likely to become a process - the fruits of which will be strange. Adaptive illustrations that A/B test themselves, hyper-personalisation, deep instability. </p>

It is only within the last few years that architectural visualisation and product photography has really got anywhere close to a level of 'true' photo-realism which might reasonably confuse experienced professionals, mainly because achieving the right level of complexity and textural variation that we are subconsciously rely on is extremely tedious or expensive. At the very least we can imagine that a commercial rendering pipelines are going to start including AI if only to sprinkle some of this magic realism dust at various stages of the pipeline.

<p>It is only within the last few years that architectural visualisation and product photography has really got anywhere close to a level of 'true' photo-realism which might reasonably confuse experienced professionals, mainly because achieving the right level of complexity and textural variation that we are subconsciously rely on is extremely tedious or expensive. At the very least we can imagine that a commercial rendering pipelines are going to start including AI if only to sprinkle some of this magic realism dust at various stages of the pipeline.</p>

<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img src="https://writing-api.burman.work/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/sd-0001.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-3172"/><figcaption class="wp-element-caption"><a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/Cjlfg43Ib9x/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">“#0001&nbsp;(geons, polished stones, building blocks, sheets of marble, film)”, 2022</a></figcaption></figure>

Stable Diffusion appears capable of generating a particular flavour of unreality. Given the right blend of inputs it will generate detail, form and lighting that reassure the human eye and appears to ‘<em>know</em>’ how to make something appear 3D or correctly textured while simultaneously making fundamental logical errors that we don't immediately acknowledge. While machine vision may be able to police machine image production, human labelling may soon be a thing of the past.

<p>Stable Diffusion appears capable of generating a particular flavour of unreality. Given the right blend of inputs it will generate detail, form and lighting that reassure the human eye and appears to ‘<em>know</em>’ how to make something appear 3D or correctly textured while simultaneously making fundamental logical errors that we don't immediately acknowledge. While machine vision may be able to police machine image production, human labelling may soon be a thing of the past. </p>

What this means for digital professional is a more complicated question. It's true that creative people who depend on a highly cultivated visual language may take a hit from unscrupulous actors if potential legal protections are fiddly to design or slow to be realised, but these may in time, also be easily addressable concerns to legislate for. To hold focus on the legal or economic side may gloss over the fundamental expansion and necessary reconstitution of what it means to be 'an artist' in the first place.

<p>What this means for digital professional is a more complicated question. It's true that creative people who depend on a highly cultivated visual language may take a hit from unscrupulous actors if potential legal protections are fiddly to design or slow to be realised, but these may in time, also be easily addressable concerns to legislate for. To hold focus on the legal or economic side may gloss over the fundamental expansion and necessary reconstitution of what it means to be 'an artist' in the first place. </p>

At a basic level, the premise that AI can independently make coherent art is essentially a boring category error, illustrating the somewhat reductive nature of conversations in mainstream and tech discourse, often based on the overestimation of the importance of 'style', as if visual art has remained static since Van Gogh chopped off his ear. While it may sound slightly obnoxious - it may also be literally true - that AI models and their creators might find a great advantage by somehow integrating lessons from art history and visual theory instead of presuming it can continue to be brute-forced a billion images 512px x 512px at a time.

<p>At a basic level, the premise that AI can independently make coherent art is essentially a boring category error, illustrating the somewhat reductive nature of conversations in mainstream and tech discourse, often based on the overestimation of the importance of 'style', as if visual art has remained static since Van Gogh chopped off his ear. While it may sound slightly obnoxious - it may also be literally true - that AI models and their creators might find a great advantage by somehow integrating lessons from art history and visual theory instead of presuming it can continue to be brute-forced a billion images 512px x 512px at a time. </p>

<h3>Stabilisation (And Its Discontents)</h3>

This isn't to make a value judgement about the different ways that people might use Stable Diffusion, quite the opposite, art is perhaps the primary process <em>through</em> which we as humans will build a cultural understanding of the computational structures that AI is revealing, and the wider the gamut of outputs, the better. As we shift from demo to tool it's likely that enhanced interfaces will provide a suite of richer interactions that may explicitly challenge us on this front, rather than defaulting to one-liner prompts, squashed into a HTML text input.

<p>This isn't to make a value judgement about the different ways that people might use Stable Diffusion, quite the opposite, art is perhaps the primary process <em>through</em> which we as humans will build a cultural understanding of the computational structures that AI is revealing, and the wider the gamut of outputs, the better. As we shift from demo to tool it's likely that enhanced interfaces will provide a suite of richer interactions that may explicitly challenge us on this front, rather than defaulting to one-liner prompts, squashed into a HTML text input. </p>

There is of course a whole separate debate to be had as to what it might mean for such a model to make art for itself or other machines, and even if we could realistically recognise it doing so. In the mean time it's a technology that will likely reveal more about ourselves, how we perceive the world and our emotional relationship to images, perhaps in time taking the the form of industrial-grade, cheaply available art therapy.

<p>There is of course a whole separate debate to be had as to what it might mean for such a model to make art for itself or other machines, and even if we could realistically recognise it doing so. In the mean time it's a technology that will likely reveal more about ourselves, how we perceive the world and our emotional relationship to images, perhaps in time taking the the form of industrial-grade, cheaply available art therapy.</p>

<div class="wp-block-column" style="flex-basis:50%"><p>That the go-to nomenclature for such technologies is 'dream' i.e DeepDream, Dream Studio, Dream Fusion etc, may not be as trivial as it might first appears if in time such software performs a perceptual function similar to actual dreaming, albeit a little more <em>on-demand</em>.</p><p>As with dreaming though, the process of AI image generation is generally speaking far more fascinating than any specific output. The most common audience responses usually concern method - 'how was that done?' and 'can I do it too?'.</p><p>Very few AI images hold our attention in a meaningful way except perhaps those with a particular satirical resonance (see <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/StableDiffusion/comments/x3u3r0/jeflon_zuckergates/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Jeflon Zuckergates</a>) which capitalise on Stable Diffusions dazzling capacity to seamlessly blend between numerous semantic concepts. </p></div>

<div class="wp-block-column" style="flex-basis:50%"><figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img src="https://writing-api.burman.work/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/hdyw1o181el91.png" alt="" class="wp-image-3325"/><figcaption class="wp-element-caption"><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/StableDiffusion/comments/x3u3r0/jeflon_zuckergates/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Jeflon Zuckergates - via reddit</a></figcaption></figure></div>

<div class="wp-block-columns alignwide"><div class="wp-block-column" style="flex-basis:50%"><p>That the go-to nomenclature for such technologies is 'dream' i.e DeepDream, Dream Studio, Dream Fusion etc, may not be as trivial as it might first appears if in time such software performs a perceptual function similar to actual dreaming, albeit a little more <em>on-demand</em>.</p><p>As with dreaming though, the process of AI image generation is generally speaking far more fascinating than any specific output. The most common audience responses usually concern method - 'how was that done?' and 'can I do it too?'.</p><p>Very few AI images hold our attention in a meaningful way except perhaps those with a particular satirical resonance (see <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/StableDiffusion/comments/x3u3r0/jeflon_zuckergates/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Jeflon Zuckergates</a>) which capitalise on Stable Diffusions dazzling capacity to seamlessly blend between numerous semantic concepts. </p></div><div class="wp-block-column" style="flex-basis:50%"><figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img src="https://writing-api.burman.work/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/hdyw1o181el91.png" alt="" class="wp-image-3325"/><figcaption class="wp-element-caption"><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/StableDiffusion/comments/x3u3r0/jeflon_zuckergates/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Jeflon Zuckergates - via reddit</a></figcaption></figure></div></div>

Reading through the pages of community generated add-ons already reveals the pathology of its current userbase to some extent - a blend of fantasy castles, cyberpunk streets, celebrity portraits, and of course endless, endless waifus. Beyond meme soup of X in the style of Y, lies a whole alphabet of image-based psychoanalysis.

<p>Reading through the pages of community generated add-ons already reveals the pathology of its current userbase to some extent - a blend of fantasy castles, cyberpunk streets, celebrity portraits, and of course endless, endless waifus. Beyond meme soup of X in the style of Y, lies a whole alphabet of image-based psychoanalysis.</p>

Indeed using Stable Diffusion has gradually unpicked and reassembled my own visual inclinations, distilling a mix of 70's conceptual sculpture, waste materials, geology and architectural formalism. For all the discussion about what it will mean for artists to have their work encoded into such models, it's also more than a little humbling to have an AI suggest that your images resemble an artist you thought you weren't obviously ripping off.

<p>Indeed using Stable Diffusion has gradually unpicked and reassembled my own visual inclinations, distilling a mix of 70's conceptual sculpture, waste materials, geology and architectural formalism. For all the discussion about what it will mean for artists to have their work encoded into such models, it's also more than a little humbling to have an AI suggest that your images resemble an artist you thought you weren't obviously ripping off.</p>

<div class="wp-block-column" style="flex-basis:50%"><figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img src="https://writing-api.burman.work/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/0005img.png" alt="" class="wp-image-3174"/><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">“<a href="https://www.instagram.com/explore/tags/0005/">#0005</a>&nbsp;(prompt: ‘geological scrap paper, plaster, sculpture’)”, 2022</figcaption></figure></div>

<div class="wp-block-column" style="flex-basis:50%"><figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img src="https://writing-api.burman.work/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/insty_08.png" alt="" class="wp-image-3178"/><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">#0008 &nbsp;(prompt: ‘blocks, concrete, brick’)”, 2022</figcaption></figure></div>

<div class="wp-block-columns alignfull"><div class="wp-block-column" style="flex-basis:50%"><figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img src="https://writing-api.burman.work/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/0005img.png" alt="" class="wp-image-3174"/><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">“<a href="https://www.instagram.com/explore/tags/0005/">#0005</a>&nbsp;(prompt: ‘geological scrap paper, plaster, sculpture’)”, 2022</figcaption></figure></div><div class="wp-block-column" style="flex-basis:50%"><figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img src="https://writing-api.burman.work/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/insty_08.png" alt="" class="wp-image-3178"/><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">#0008 &nbsp;(prompt: ‘blocks, concrete, brick’)”, 2022</figcaption></figure></div></div>

While it's astonishing that models like Stable Diffusion are capable of such outputs, they are still hyper-specialised only within a single domain, the question lingers about what happens as they start to become even slightly more general or perhaps even why they aren't already.

<p>While it's astonishing that models like Stable Diffusion are capable of such outputs, they are still hyper-specialised only within a single domain, the question lingers about what happens as they start to become even slightly more general or perhaps even why they aren't already.</p>

This concern is at the centre of Stanislas Dehaenes highly approachable <em>'<a href="https://www.penguin.co.uk/authors/22843/stanislas-dehaene" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">How We Learn: The New Science of Education and the Brain'</a></em>, in which he compares the limit of current machine learning to the multi-layered, multi-sensory and social nature of human learning and it's surprising adaptability and robustness.

<p>This concern is at the centre of Stanislas Dehaenes highly approachable <em>'<a href="https://www.penguin.co.uk/authors/22843/stanislas-dehaene" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">How We Learn: The New Science of Education and the Brain'</a></em>, in which he compares the limit of current machine learning to the multi-layered, multi-sensory and social nature of human learning and it's surprising adaptability and robustness.</p>

More recently the multi-author paper&nbsp;<a href="https://arxiv.org/abs/2210.08340">Toward Next-Generation Artificial Intelligence: Catalyzing the NeuroAI Revolution</a>&nbsp;is in essence a challenge to the wider AI research community to lean more fully into the study of Neuroscience and so-called ‘NeuroAI’, and to explore biological models that might radically improve the environmental interactions, flexibility and energy efficiency of AI.  Certainly many in the field are betting on neuro-biologically inspired research to further reveal how to better design software intelligences while possibly helping us understand our own brains in the process.

<p>More recently the multi-author paper&nbsp;<a href="https://arxiv.org/abs/2210.08340">Toward Next-Generation Artificial Intelligence: Catalyzing the NeuroAI Revolution</a>&nbsp;is in essence a challenge to the wider AI research community to lean more fully into the study of Neuroscience and so-called ‘NeuroAI’, and to explore biological models that might radically improve the environmental interactions, flexibility and energy efficiency of AI.  Certainly many in the field are betting on neuro-biologically inspired research to further reveal how to better design software intelligences while possibly helping us understand our own brains in the process.</p>

Among the authors is Jeff Hawkins, co-founder of Numenta (and formely co-founder of Palm Computing, originators of the PalmPilot) and author of the recent&nbsp;<em><a href="https://www.hachette.co.uk/titles/jeff-hawkins/a-thousand-brains/9781541675810/">A Thousand Brains: A New Theory of Intelligence</a>. </em>The book is&nbsp;a cogent articulation of why AI needs neuroscience, based on two decades of research into the neocortex and it’s seemingly all-purpose role in high-level cognitive tasks - such as language. Emerging from this work are new theories of the organisation of the neocortex based on cortical&nbsp;columns and 'frames of reference', that might yet be one of the building blocks of neuro-inspired computational models.

<p>Among the authors is Jeff Hawkins, co-founder of Numenta (and formely co-founder of Palm Computing, originators of the PalmPilot) and author of the recent&nbsp;<em><a href="https://www.hachette.co.uk/titles/jeff-hawkins/a-thousand-brains/9781541675810/">A Thousand Brains: A New Theory of Intelligence</a>. </em>The book is&nbsp;a cogent articulation of why AI needs neuroscience, based on two decades of research into the neocortex and it’s seemingly all-purpose role in high-level cognitive tasks - such as language. Emerging from this work are new theories of the organisation of the neocortex based on cortical&nbsp;columns and 'frames of reference', that might yet be one of the building blocks of neuro-inspired computational models.</p>

A key observation is that intelligence in biological systems is at least one or two orders of magnitude more efficient that current software approaches - implying there is still massive headroom in realising ever more powerful AI systems. It’s somewhat surprising perhaps that the artificial intelligence community maintains any distance from neuroscientific enquiry when so many of the active topics as, attention, episodic memory and of course neural networks themselves, are direct biological in origin.

<p>A key observation is that intelligence in biological systems is at least one or two orders of magnitude more efficient that current software approaches - implying there is still massive headroom in realising ever more powerful AI systems. It’s somewhat surprising perhaps that the artificial intelligence community maintains any distance from neuroscientific enquiry when so many of the active topics as, attention, episodic memory and of course neural networks themselves, are direct biological in origin.</p>

Of particular value are ‘sparse' networks, or ones with a minimal amount of connections is already appearing to have significant performance in real world applications, with a claimed improvement of 100x improvement in the "<a href="https://numenta.com/assets/pdf/research-publications/papers/Sparsity-Enables-100x-Performance-Acceleration-Deep-Learning-Networks.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Performance Acceleration in Deep Learning Networks</a>”. As they write in their whitepaper: <em>“How is the brain so intelligent with such amazing efficiency? One reason is that most of the neocortex is sparse. It stores and processes information in the context of extremely sparse neural activity and sparse connectivity.”</em>

<p>Of particular value are ‘sparse' networks, or ones with a minimal amount of connections is already appearing to have significant performance in real world applications, with a claimed improvement of 100x improvement in the "<a href="https://numenta.com/assets/pdf/research-publications/papers/Sparsity-Enables-100x-Performance-Acceleration-Deep-Learning-Networks.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Performance Acceleration in Deep Learning Networks</a>”. As they write in their whitepaper: <em>“How is the brain so intelligent with such amazing efficiency? One reason is that most of the neocortex is sparse. It stores and processes information in the context of extremely sparse neural activity and sparse connectivity.”</em></p>

<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img src="https://writing-api.burman.work/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/0006-1024.png" alt="" class="wp-image-3328"/><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">‘<a href="https://www.instagram.com/explore/tags/0006/">#0006</a>&nbsp;(prompt: “industrial materials, studio photoshoot”)’, 2022</figcaption></figure>

Although this is only a single example, it demonstrates there is still plenty of room for step-change improvements in artificial intelligence. It's not just that models may become computationally more dazzling, but more nimble, easier to train, run and embed.

<p>Although this is only a single example, it demonstrates there is still plenty of room for step-change improvements in artificial intelligence. It's not just that models may become computationally more dazzling, but more nimble, easier to train, run and embed.</p>

Orange Moscow (Notes on a City Changing Colour)

0002

The Content House

COTTAGE INDUSTRY

IN EVERY CONTENT HOUSE A HEARTACHE

THE DRAMATIC RISE OF TIKTOK

TEENAGE STREAMS

DISMANTLING AND REORDERING

ESCAPING LOCAL MAXIMA

PLATFORM AS HABITAT

The Content House: The New Cottage Industry of Platform Inhabitation

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The Content House

COTTAGE INDUSTRY

IN EVERY CONTENT HOUSE A HEARTACHE

THE DRAMATIC RISE OF TIKTOK

TEENAGE STREAMS

DISMANTLING AND REORDERING

ESCAPING LOCAL MAXIMA

PLATFORM AS HABITAT

The Content House: The New Cottage Industry of Platform Inhabitation

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Orange Moscow (Notes on a City Changing Colour)

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